5 offerings to kickstart 2024, including the first EPA report (yay!)

Hello friends

I hope this finds you fine and dandy. I come bearing five edu-offerings to get 2024 off to a roaring start:

1. The first Education Policy Alliance report (yay!)

As you may be aware, for the last year or so I’ve been involved with a new group called the Education Policy Alliance, a grass-roots think tank dedicated to crowd-sourcing education policy.

Today we published our first report, on how to reform Ofsted. It sets out a bold vision for the future of schools accountability which would:

• Improve quality of information provided to parents/carers

• Provide more accurate, timely information to the regulator

• Prioritise the wellbeing of educators, children and young people

We believe that our proposals would significantly improve outcomes for schools, parents/carers and the regulator, within the same budget currently allocated to OFSTED.

You can download the report, and our one-page theory of change (see below) here.

Let me know what you reckon - I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

2. How to make teaching desirable again

Today, the EPA is also publishing a survey to capture people’s thoughts on how we might improve teacher recruitment and retention. (By the way, thanks to everyone who completed the survey on mental health and well being - the EPA elves are currently beavering away behind the scenes to shape your ideas into policy proposals).

The figures on teacher recruitment and retention make for grim reading. If you have any thoughts on how we might improve teacher recruitment, teacher retention - or both - please share them here: bit.ly/epa-recruit

3. How to fix the attendance crisis

Last week I did a live podcast on the attendance crisis. Almost 300 people tuned in to listen to Dr Naomi Fisher, Ellie Costello and Ben Davis dropping a tonne of wisdom and insight onto the whole affair. As Ben put it: “We don’t have an attendance crisis. We have an omni-education crisis. And the ability to fix it is within our grasp.” I paraphrase, but that was the general gist.

See here for a trailer, full video, audio and show notes.

4. “We’ve lost the plot”: Ben Davis on how to create schools children and adults want to go to

If you listened to the attendance crisis episode last week and wondered ‘Hey, who is this Ben Davis guy, why don’t you do a full episode with him?” Well, your prayers have been answered!

Ben is the headteacher of St Ambrose Barlow RC High School in Salford (where the Rethinking Ed conference will be held later this year)

Ben is the headteacher of St Ambrose Barlow RC High School in Salford. I’ve had the great pleasure to get to know Ben a little over the last year or so, as part of the Education Policy Alliance. He is one of the loveliest people you could wish to meet - and that view was echoed in many of the comments we received during last week’s episode. 

A passionate, principled headteacher who embodies the principles of public service, Ben has recently been one of the courageous headteachers who have raised their heads above the parapet to talk about the pernicious impact Ofsted has on schools and school leaders.

See here for a trailer, full video, audio and show notes.

5. Parenting a child who can’t - not won’t - go to school

Finally - the last podcast of 2023 featured my recent conversation with Eliza Fricker, a brilliant writer and illustrator who has written three books:

• 'The Family Experience of PDA: An Illustrated Guide to Pathological Demand Avoidance'

• 'Can't Not Won't: A Story About A Child Who Couldn't Go To School'

• And most recently 'Thumbsucker: An illustrated journey through an undiagnosed autistic childhood'

It’s the second of these books that we talk about mostly in this episode - Can’t Not Won’t.

It’s a fascinating read - funny and heartbreaking in equal measure - and Eliza’s illustrations and wry observations really shine a light on what it’s like when your child finds that they are no longer able to attend school. It really should be recommended reading for any teachers and school leaders, as well as for young people with barriers to attendance, and their families.

See here for a trailer, full video, audio and show notes.

Well, that’s it for now edu-amigos. Keep your eyes peeled for the next EPA report on mental health and wellbeing, and upcoming podcasts with Fiona Millar, Peps Mccrea and Rupert Sheldrake - to name just a few!

Until the next time…

James

Dr James Mannion
Director, Rethinking Education